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Amy Sherald and Elise Pepple

Baltimore artist Amy Sherald unveiled her rendering of Michelle Obama at the National Portrait Gallery on February 12, 2018.

Sherald likes to warn people that the artist’s path is not for the faint of heart.

In 2004, Sherald was training for a triathlon when she was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure. Then, in the fall of 2012, she stopped at Rite Aid on the on the way to her studio. She blacked out and was rushed to the hospital. Her heart functioning had dropped to just 5 percent. She needed a transplant.

At StoryCorps, Sherald told her friend Elise Pepple how her failing heart pushed her to succeed as an artist.

Top photo: Amy Sherald (right) presents her portrait of Michelle Obama to the First Lady. Courtesy of Saul Loeb / Getty Images.

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Amy Sherald (AS) and Elise Pepple (EP)

AS: I got my transplant ten years almost to the date of my diagnosis. Because I felt I only had ten years to live, I stopped caring what the future was gonna hold because I’m like, ’I’m not gonna be here anyway so who cares? Like, I’m gonna do this. I’m not gonna play it safe.’ And that worked in my favor.

EP: And did you always want to be an artist?

AS: Ever since the second grade, I think. I was either gonna be an artist or a chef.

And um, it is a hustle. When young artists come to be and talk what it’s like, I say it’s not for the faint-hearted, because you have to be uncomfortable and not let what people think – like, what I call “civilians,” people who are not artists — think about how you’re living your life. Like the fact that I was 36, and I was waiting tables, and knowing that people were questioning what I was doing with my life, and not really understanding the process that it takes to, you know, break your career out. That gets to you at times. And like just being broke — it’s feast or famine – that gets to you at times. So like, the dream is free, but the hustle is sold separately, that’s what I always say. But if you don’t quit, then eventually it’ll be your time.